a medical librarian's adventures in evidence-based living

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September 18, 2012

Genetically Modified Crops include Bt (Bacillius thuringiensis) Cotton & Corn, and Herbicide-Tolerant (HT) Soy, Cotton, and Corn. Almost All Soybeans Grown in the United States are Now Genetically Modified.

If you received this post via email, click here, to get to the web version with all the links, & to watch "Genetic Roulette"

GMOs in the Grocery Store? What Does It Mean, Exactly?

A little back-story, to get you started.

“Genetic modification” refers to the manipulation of DNA by humans to change the essential makeup of plants and animals. The technology inserts genetic material from one species into another to give a crop or animal a new quality, such as the ability to produce a pesticide.

These DNA transfers could never occur in nature and are not as precise as proponents make them sound.

Some genetically modified crops have been engineered to include genetic material from BT (Bacillus thuringiensis), a natural bacterium found in soil.

Inserting the Bt genes makes the plant itself produce bacterial toxins, thereby killing the insects that could destroy it. The first GM crop carrying Bt genes, potatoes, were approved in the United States in 1995. Today there are Bt versions of corn, potatoes and cotton.

The Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service says that, in 2010, as much as 86 percent of corn, up to 90 percent of all soybeans and nearly 93 percent of cotton were GM varieties.

The pros & cons of GMO food are more than I could begin to tackle in a single blog post.

To get a handle on the concerns with the pervasiveness of GMOs in our food supply--YOU, dear reader, should you choose to accept this assignment--will have do some homework. But, no worries. All the assignments are listed below.

Frankly, the whole GMO issue is something I haven't paid all that much attention to.

That's is--until recently.

The published research into the potential adverse health effects of GMO-foods is on the scant-side, because companies like Monsanto don't have to give out their seeds to be tested. Corporate patent laws protect them from scrutiny.

Birth defects in birds & amphibians; cancer, endocrine disruption, DNA & developmental damage to mammals exposed to low doses of glyphosate (that's the active ingredient in Monsanto's herbicide, Round-Up which is used as part of the whole package when farmers use Round-Up resistant seeds) (Check out the 2011 Report "Roundup and Birth Defects: Is the Public Being Kept in the Dark?--a report by 8 international scientists)

Intestinal permeability caused by the Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) which is genetically implanted into seeds to kill insects. Bt may also be responsible for changing healthy human microflora in the gut.

Autoimmune disorders caused as a response to ingesting an "unnatural gene-modified food"

Infants & children are more sensitive to GMO's in food & formula because of their fast growth rates, high metabolisms, & low body mass. Consider the widespread exposures to GMO-soy formulas like Similac Soy, Gerber Soy, Enfamil soy, & Walmart Soy. Sadly, the WIC soy formulas are all GMO. Non-GMO or organic brands are fine.

So, how is it possible that there is so little published research on the long-term effects of GMOs on human & animal health, considering that GMO-seeds now totally dominate the farming industry?

Turns out, the FDA allowed Monsanta to conduct its own research prior to approval of GMO seeds in the 1990's. That's right! No independent investigators. Monsanto did their own research in-house. And none of the studies were long-term, which would be necessary to show any connection to cancer, birth defects, or reproductive disorders. In fact, there was only one human feeding study conducted, prior to approval of Round-Up ready soy seeds.

The FDA policy commissioner at the time of GMO approval was Michael R. Taylor, who had previous ties to Monsanto as their legal counsel--and has had a revolving door of positions between Monsanto, King & Spalding, a law firm representing Monsanto, & the FDA. Right now, he's the FDA's "Food Safety Czar".

"As the system now stands, biotech companies bring their own research to the government body overseeing their proposed products. The agency may be the US Dept. of Agriculture, the federal Food and Drug Administration or the Environmental Protection Agency.

These government bodies do no independent studies on the safety and efficacy of the proposed products. Instead, they rely strictly on the research conducted by the companies.

"We don’t have the whole picture. That’s no accident. Multibillion-dollar agricultural corporations, including Monsanto and Syngenta, have restricted independent research on their genetically-engineered crops,” wrote Doug Gurion-Sherman of the Union of Concerned Scientists in a February 2011 Los Angeles Times op-ed piece.

“They have often refused to provide independent scientists with seeds, or they’ve set restrictive conditions that severely limit research options.”

Honestly, the whole corporations-versus-consumer-versus-the-FDA-&-the-USDA controversy is so shrouded with secrecy & accusations that it's hard to get a bottom line on the real risks of GMOs to our health & our environment.

My bottom line: I'm not a GMO fan. I'm concerned. I'm going to make every effort to avoid the stuff. Why wait until it's too late?

Why Not Watch Jeffrey M. Smith's Documentary, "Genetic Roulette: The Gamble of Our Lives" and Decide About GMO's for Yourself?

Do Not Miss This One!!! It's a worthwhile investment of 1 hr and 24 mins. And besides, it's free online from Sept. 15-22nd only. So don't put this off for too long.

You'll find the link to this disturbing documentary,here. Sorry, I couldn't insert it into the post.

The Lab Rat & I watched "Genetic Roulette" last night. It's a new documentary that "reveals the serious health impacts of genetically engineered foods in our diets." No coincidence that its release is timed to the upcoming California Proposition 37 to label GMOs in food.

We were spellbound--glued to our chairs. Now we "get" what GMO seeds are all about--as well as their potential for harm to humans, animals, & the environment.

Scientists, veterinarians, physicians, policy makers, & farmers, together make one heck of a convincing case against GMO foods-& the biotech invasion into the food industry. But, decide for yourself.

I admit it--I was a little skeptical that it might be sensational pseudo-science. I was wrong (unless someone I respect & trust can convince me otherwise).

Frankly, I was unaware of the health ramifications & the lack of scientific oversight of the GMO industry--by the FDA or the USDA before viewing this documentary. This is one complex story.

Do yourself & your family a favor & watch this film--and then decide for yourself how closely you want to start reading food labels.

There's an accompanying phone app & a shopping guide that you can download to check out which foods are non-GMO. The Lab Rat just checked out his Wheat-a-Bix & then went through the fridge reading labels.

Big Food is worried that this is the thin edge of the wedge, and I (Bittman) hope they’re right. If we win the right to know what’s in processed food, we might be inclined to demand to know how other food is produced. (You might think of Prop 37 as the anti-ag-gag law.) If genetically engineered food is so terrific, persuade us; if it’s not, well, fine. In any case, it should be up to us to buy it or not, but first we have to know what it is.

I (Bittman) want to know — quite technically, in all the detail available — how my food is produced, and I’m far from alone. We’d be able to make saner choices, and those choices would greatly affect Big Food’s ability to freely use genetically manipulated materials, an almost unlimited assortment of drugs and inhumane and environmentally destructive animal-production methods."

The Murky Money Story Behind the Funding for the Stanford Organic Food Study

I believed the article's disclaimer: "The authors received no external funding for this study." But, who funds Stanford's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, & who funded the researchers' study?

"A simple look at FSI's 2011 annual report shows that it is funded by Cargill and others who have a strong financial interest in Monsanto, McDonalds, Walmart, and other businesses that profit from industrial food practices.

Before you head out to the market, check out this slide show (in Watson's Huff Post article) to see how the Stanford Institute that funded the study gets its money and to see some of the other reasons to choose organic when you can. Tell us which ones you would take with a grain of salt."

Check out: "Uneasy Allies in the Grocery Aisle," by Stephanie Strom, September 13, 2012, New York Times. Get a better handle on the key players fighting the GMO-Labeling California ballot issue, Proposition 37.

May 28, 2012

If you received this post via email, click here, to get to the website & view the trailer, the links, & leave a comment.

On Thursday, my husband forwarded this to me at work.

The message: What were you thinking when you added this to our Netflix queue? Another loser movie?

Me: Not me. You must have added it! You probably heard about it from one of your gardening magazines or when you were doing research for your insect presentation. Why would I order a movie about bees?

Lab Rat: Definitely not me! You added it.

Turns out--it was me. As I wrote this post, I realized I added it months ago from a recommendation by Frederic & Mary Brussat.

Saturday Afternoon - Sitting in Our Lush Sunny Backyard

We grabbed books, the newspaper, and sank into lounge chairs to enjoy the sun and the quiet of the late afternoon. Son #2 enjoyed a Green Smoothie along with Chex Mix--a old-time favorite comfort snack of his.

Beekeeper and healer Sara Mapelli performs with 12,000 bees in a scene from Queen of the Sun

"Queen of Sun explores the varied reasons for colony collapse while providing a road map for combating it: the eradication of monoculture farming, abandoning the use of pesticides that end up harming bees more than the pests they're meant to eradicate, and stopping migratory beekeeping that truck bees all over the country, killing millions in transit and stressing the colonies."

I still had no idea which of us had added The Queen of the Sun to our Netflix queue--but, what a winner this documentary was.

Beauty, science, nature, spirituality, gentle caretaking, man's misguided interference and a serious warning to the world. An ancient insect is now in peril.

If you're a gardener. If you love flowers. If you love fruit. If you're intrigued by the intricate symbiotic nature of nature. If you have concerns about pesticides--add Alzheimer's for bees to your worry list. If you want to know how genetically-modified (GMO) seeds are made--and what their impact might be on our environment & future food production--this will be an eye-opener. If you had no idea how miles and miles of fields planted only with one crop--like, corn and soybeans--can harm bees--you'll find out. If you had no idea that bee hives are now trucked thousands of miles in order to pollinate crops--and even bees are being fed high-fructose corn syrup. Or that there's such a thing as artificial insemination for Queen Bees--and there's a price to pay for messing with Queen's sex life!

You'll want to watch this movie.

But, is it boring and dry? Another gloom and movie, that should have been called, "Bee-pocalypse"?

Not at all! Gorgeous flowers. Some zany characters. Fascinating beekeepers & scenery from Italy, France, New Zealand, Oregon, and even the Bronx. An entomologist. A physicist. Biologists. And your eyes will be opened.

"QUEEN OF THE SUN: What Are the Bees Telling Us? is a profound, alternative look at the global bee crisis from the award-winning director of THE REAL DIRT ON FARMER JOHN.

Taking us on a journey through the catastrophic disappearance of bees and the mysterious world of the beehive, this alarming and ultimately uplifting film weaves together a dramatic story of the heart-felt struggles of beekeepers, scientists and philosophers around the world.

This spellbinding film explores the long-term causes that have led to one of our most urgent global food crises, illuminating the deep link between humans and bees.

The story unveils 10,000 years of beekeeping, highlighting how that historic and sacred relationship has been lost. Inspiring and entertaining, QUEEN OF THE SUN uncovers the problems and solutions in renewing a culture in balance with nature."

“Beautifully blends poetry and science to tell the story of what may be the most important co-evolutionary bond on Earth… Queen of the Sun's optimistic tone suggests solutions will flower from the seeds of new perspectives.” - Rick Marianetti, The Examiner

“I never thought that a documentary about honeybees would make me both laugh and cry-but filmmaker Taggart Siegel’s Queen of the Sun is one such film.” -Dennis Hartley, Hullabaloo

December 06, 2011

If you do not see the Temper Tantrum video on your screen, click here.

"The trick is to get the child past the peaks of anger. Once you do that, what's left is the sadness, and sad children reach out for comfort.

The quickest way past the anger--is to do nothing.

Don't shout, don't hit, don't try to comfort the child. But, when a child is screaming it's hard to do nothing.

[W}hen children are at the peak of anger and they're screaming and they're kicking, probably asking questions might prolong that period of anger.

When I'm advising people about anger I say, 'There's an anger trap. Even asking questions can prolong the anger--and the tantrum.'

It's difficult for them to process information--they're overwhelmed. And to respond to a question that the parent is asking them may be just adding more information into the system than they can really cope with.

Would I be so ga-ga about research on tantrums if I weren't a grandparent--and dealt with a few toddler melt-downs myself? Probably not!

But, you don't have to be a parent or a grandparent to experience the "horror show" of a full-blown temper tantrum. Think grocery store lines, airplanes, or restaurants.

It's happened to all of us--and it can make us feel as helpless as the screaming & kicking child who's having the tantrum. And by the way--all kids have tantrums.

"Small kids just have tantrums. Some have lots of them. Tantrums may be traumatic for parents, but they're mostly normal behavior. So science hasn't paid much attention to them--until now." (NPR)

But, if psychologists Potegal & Green are right--and I sure hope they are--there's both parental power & a sense of control when you know that all tantrums follow the same pattern--and if you know exactly when to ignore them, and when to intervene--a tanturm becomes easier to endure.

"[W]hen looked at scientifically, tantrums are no different than thunderstorms or other natural phenomena. Studying them as scientific subjects, rather than experiencing them like parents can cause the tantrums to stop feeling traumatic and even become interesting." (NPR) Really????

My Temper Tantrum "Ah Ha" Moment!

When I heard the NPR story yesterday morning I had an AH HA moment!

Isn't a toddler's temper tantrum something we can all relate to?

When we're REALLY REALLY UPSET or REALLY REALLY ANGRY (of course, I never am) we just want to have our say--and have someone listen to it--and not interrupt us.

We don't want anyone to shut us up.

We don't want any sympathetic coddling.

We don't want to hear anyone's advice or solution to our problem.

We don't want to hear logic.

We don't want to be comforted.

We just want to be heard, to vent, & release anger & frustration

Only when we get our proper say, are we ready for hugs, comfort, & to listen to reason.

BTW--it only took me about 30 years of marriage to learn to just close my mouth & listen when my husband was having the equivalent of a grown-up's temper tantrum. Plenty of time to talk & comfort after he's had a chance to vent!

Thanks to Michael Potegal of the University of Minnesota, & James Green of the University of Connecticut, who studied & recorded over one hundred temper tantrums--there just may be an easy technique for dealing with the terrible two's & meltdowns.

How crazy is this? Potegal & Green devised a onesie with a wireless microphone. Then they convinced parents to put the onesie on their kids--& hit the GO button, so they could record all that tantrum screaming, crying, wailing, & whining.

Potegal & Green say most temper tantrums follow the same pattern--the build up is quite quick--to a peak of anger--but then the child exhausts himself & what's left is a child who wants to be comforted.

The Play-By-Play Analysis of a Tantrum

NPR: (commenting on the video) It looks like the tantrum is escalating. But, in fact, what the new theory suggests is exactly the opposite.

Green: (speaking about the child in the video) Once she's thrown herself on the floor and thrown something, or in this case, knocked the chair against the wall, we're probably on the down slope of this tantrum. She's spent a lot of energy; screaming, yelling and now doing these physical behaviors.

NPR: The scream was a peak. No one can stay that angry for long - it's exhausting. I asked Green what sounds he expected next from Katrina (the child in the video).

Green: Probably something...like crying or whining. There's been so much energy expended. The child knows that they've been out of control. That leads to a sense that they'd like some comfort from their parents.

NPR: This tantrum from scream to whimper took only a minute. But, Green & Potegal argue that no matter how long tantrums last or how often they occur, they follow the same pattern.

The Three Phases of a Tantrum

Phase I: Yelling & screaming. Associated with a high degree of anger. That's how tantrums start, especially if there's a goal the parent has in mind that's different from what the child has in mind.

Phase: 2: Physical actions. Throwing oneself on the floor or throwing something. This signals the downslope of the tantrum. The child has spent a lot of energy, screaming, yelling & physical behaviors.

Phase 3: Crying & whining. This signals the end of the tantrum--what we see after intense physical behaviors. And it can sometimes take only a minute to go from screaming to a whimper. Only now is the child ready to be comforted--and she's ready to listen to mom or dad.

But, no matter how long it takes, from start to finish, all tantrums follow the same pattern!

BPA is bad news. I'm not going to get into all the nasty details of how this endocrine disruptor can be damaging to pregnant women, fetuses, babies, & children--or how, as a hormone disruptor it's been linked to breast & prostate cancers, attention-deficit disorder, behavioral problems, & even diabetes.

That's all old news.

But, here's the new deal, you might have missed. BPA isn't just in plastic bottles--it's also in the linings of many cans--to prevent corrosion. In fact, until recently, it was found in the linings of practically all canned tomato products. That's now changed, because Muir Glen Organics recently started using BPA-free cans for its tomatoes. Learn more below.

Here's what my friend Fran recently sent me from 7 Foods Experts Won't Eat(and just so you know--Dr. Fredrick vom Saal is THE BPA expert in the US).

The Situation: The resin linings of tin cans contain bisphenol-A, a synthetic estrogen that has been linked to ailments ranging from reproductive problems to heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.

Unfortunately, acidity (a prominent characteristic of tomatoes) causes BPA to leach into your food. Studies show that the BPA in most people’s body exceeds the amount that suppresses sperm production or causes chromosomal damage to the eggs of animals.

“You can get 50 mcg of BPA per liter out of a tomato can, and that’s a level that is going to impact people, particularly the young,” says vom Saal. “I won’t go near canned tomatoes.”

The Solution: Choose tomatoes in glass bottles (which do not need resin linings), such as the brands Bionaturae and Coluccio. You can also get several types in Tetra Pak boxes, like Trader Joe’s and Pomi. (and Muir Glen tomatoes canned after 1/11)

Muir Glen Canned Tomatoes

Last Friday afternoon I waited on the phone for 45 minutes in order to talk to a Muir Glen customer service rep to find out if Muir Glen tomatoes are really BPA-Free.

To date, there is nothing on their label to indicate that they are BPA-free. So I wanted to hear it from a company representative.

Here's the scoop:

All Muir Glen tomatoes packaged since January 2011 are now in BPA-free cans.

The company won't put the BPA-free labels on their cans until all the old stock is off the shelf.

So, how will we know if our cans are BPA-free, until the new labeling goes into effect?

1. The lining will be orange, not white.

2. The expiration date will have a 2014 on it. But..most of my cans have an expiration date of Mar. 2013, & they've all been orange on the inside--which means they're BPA-Free. The 2014 date will give you 100% assurance that the can is BPA-free--but there are 2013 expiration-dated cans that are also BPA-free.

3. Here's another clue. If the can has a white-enameled lining with BPA, it will say so on the label, right near the nutrition facts. Something like: contains enameled lining.

Eden Brand Beans

All Eden Brand Beans come in BPA-free cans. Learn more about that here.

Tetra-Paks or Glass

All food packaged in glass containers or in Tetra-Paks do not have BPA. Some researchers have concerns about the linings of Tetra paks--but, I haven't seen any research on that subject.

On November 23, 2011, right before Thanksgiving, when millions of Americans were going to open up cans of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup, green beans, Durkee's Onion Rings, pumpkin pie filling, & cranberry sauce---one of the top-dog medical journals, JAMA, busted canned soup for it's sky-high BPA levels. You can read a snippet of the article here.

But, hey, if you had read my Consumer Reports post on canned foods, none of this would have been a big surprise.

If you want a quick summary of the JAMA findings--head over to the New York Time's article written by Anahad O'Connor on November 22, 2011.

"People who ate one serving of canned food daily over the course of five days, the study found, had significantly elevated levels — more than a tenfold increase — of bisphenol-A, or BPA, a substance that lines most food and drink cans.

The new study, which was published [on November 23, 2011] in The Journal of the American Medical Association, is the first to measure the amounts that are ingested when people eat food that comes directly out of a can, in this case soup. The spike in BPA levels that the researchers recorded is one of the highest seen in any study.

“We cannot say from our research what the consequences are,” said Karin Michels, an associate professor of epidemiology at Harvard Medical School and an author of the study.

“But the very high levels that we found are very surprising. We would have never expected a thousand-percent increase in their levels of BPA.”

Dr. Michels noted that all the participants were fed amounts of soup that were smaller than what people probably would consume on their own.

“One serving of soup is a not a lot,” she said. “They were actually telling us that that wasn’t even enough for their lunch.”

But she also pointed out that the findings were probably applicable to other canned goods, including soda and juices.

“The sodas are concerning, because some people have a habit of consuming a lot of them throughout the day,” she said. “My guess is that with other canned foods, you would see similar increases in bisphenol-A. But we only tested soups, so we wouldn’t be able to predict the absolute size of the increase.”

On Saturday, I worked all day--drove home, downed a quick bowl of soup, popped some popcorn in my hot-air popper to take to the theater--and headed out to see a movie. The plan was to see The Way, but it was sold-out.

We saw The Descendantsinstead. All four of us gave it a thumbs up. But, I still want to see The Way.

Here's how to make your own Barbecue Air-Popped Popcorn

Use a hot air-popcorn popper.

As the popcorn comes out, mist it with water (yes, it really works & it's not soggy) from a water spray bottle, and at the same time sprinkle on Bone Suckin' Sauce Seasoning & Rub (or the seasoning of your choice) It works a lot better than spraying the popcorn with cooking oil spray (which is what I used to do), with none of the fat! The water just evaporates on the hot popcorn.

My husband thinks it's unethical. After all--I do have to "sneak" it into the theater.

But, I say, it's not like I'd eat the theater's popcorn, if I didn't bring my own. Are you kidding?

A medium combo (cola & bag of popcorn) at Regal has 1,610 calories and 60 grams of saturated fat. That's roughly the saturated fat of a stick of butter and the calories of two sticks of butter. To get the low-down on fat & salt content of the movie popcorn you're cluelessly munching, click here.

If you received this via email, click here to get to the web version of this post with graphs, links, & comments.

I hate to start a phone call with,"Sorry, I only have two minutes to talk. But, I just had to tell you, that:

Jon finally got a job.

Bruce Springsteen's coming to town & you have to order the tickets tomorrow.

Aunt Susie is in the hospital--but don't worry, she'll be OK.

Mary just got engaged. The wedding's in August.

Come for dinner tomorrow.

"Sorry, I'll call you later with details. Gotta run."

I have no business posting anything today. I've got to clean my house, shop for Monday's seder, and start cooking, now! Then it's off to the Banff Mountain Film Festival tonight. Woo Hoo. I'm excited. Probably won't have any time to post until next Friday.

Oh, and BTW, HHLL just hit over a million blog post views this morning--with readers in 191 countries!

Just Sharing the News- Three Upcoming Events That Can Change Lives

Event #1

On Tuesday, April 19th I have the opportunity to hear Dr. Dean Ornish speak on "The Power of Personalized Lifestyle Changes" at a "closed to the public" Wellness Grand Rounds. Can't wait.

"We tend to think of advances in medicine as a new drug, laser, or surgical procedure--something high-tech and expensive.

This presentation will discuss the power of comprehensive lifestyle changes, reviewing more than 30 years of research using high-tech, state-of-the-art measures to prove the power of low-tech, low-cost, and often ancient interventions.

Also, the lecture will describe proven strategies for motivating people to make and maintain comprehensive lifestyle changes, as well as how to personalize a way of eating and living based on an individual's needs, genes, and preferences.

Finally, the presentation will describe many of the health policy implications of comprehensive lifestyle changes as both medically effective and cost effective."

Event #2

On Thursday, April 21st I'm attending the following Slate "The Hive"/Cleveland Clinic: Fighting Childhood Obesity National Forum--8:30-12:15 am. Registration is open & online. Click here.

Consider attending a 3-day low-cost wellness weekend event in beautiful Athens, Ohio on May 19-21, that's open to the public, and co-sponsored by Ohio University Colleges of Health Professions & the Ohio University College of Osteopathics Medicine.Click here for more information.

Appalachian Health Summit May 20-21, 2011

Summit Speakers

Roger L. Greenlaw, MD

Dr. Greenlaw is founder and president of a prominent gastroenterology group since 1975. He received his MD in internal medicine from the University of Missouri, completed a gastroenterology fellowship at Yale, and served on the faculty of the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford, attaining the rank of Clinical Professor of Medicine. Dr. Greenlaw is board certified in Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology, and Holistic Medicine. Dr. Greenlaw practices holistic gastroenterology with an emphasis on lifestyle medicine. www.rockforfgi.com

John H. Kelly Jr, MD, MPH

Dr. Kelly completed an MD/MPH degree program at Loma Linda University School of Medicine in 2000 and his Master's of Public Health in Epidemiology in 2002. Dr. Kelly is the primary architect and Founding President of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) and was a recipient of the AMA Foundation's Excellence in Medicine Leadership Award in 2004. Dr. Kelly's lifestyle medicine practice is located in Rocky Mount, Virginia. www.lifestylehealthdoc.com.

Dr. Michelle May, MD

Author and recovered yoyo dieter, Dr. May delivers her crucial and timely message with passion, energy, and humor that transforms the way her audiences view weight management. She is the award-winning author of Am I Hungry? What to Do When Diets Don't Work and Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat: How to Break Your Eat-Repent-Repeat Cycle which reinforces her powerful message for lasting change. She founded Am IHungry?(r) Workshops, and won the Excellence in Patient Education Innovation Award. She has trained over 170 Am I Hungry?(r) Facilitators worldwide. www.amihungry.com.

Jeffrey Novick, MS, RD, LD, LN

With over 24 years of experience as a nutritionist and dietitian, Mr. Novick offers an insightful and humorous approach to nutrition and health. He holds both bachelor and graduate degrees in Nutrition from Indiana State University. Currently, Mr. Novick serves as Vice President for Executive Health Exams International, Adjunct Professor at the School of Health Sciences for Kaplan University, and lectures at the McDougall program in Santa Rosa, CA. www.jeffnovick.com

Jim Pshock

As a consulting company, Bravo Wellness offers services and tools to business partners desiring results-based wellness programs. Their successes have been unequaled in the industry. Bravo's founder, Jim Pshock, has been at the forefront of the use of result-based wellness incentives since 2004. Mr. Pshock has worked closely with the Department of Labor, Internal Revenue Service and Centers for Medicaid and Medicare to understand the practical application of these new regulations and is uniquely positioned to lead this initiative. www.bravowell.com

Rodney Snow, M.D.

Dr. Snow is a third year Endocrinology and Metabolism Fellow at the University of Virginia, where he has helped to start an insulin resistance clinic in 2009 to treat patients who have type 2 diabetes mellitus, metabolic syndrome and obesity with lifestyle interventions and a vegan diet. He received the National Institutes of Health Ruth R. Kirschstein National Research Service Award for his ongoing study of the impact of plant based nutrition on insulin resistant type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Micheal O. Thorner, M.D.

Dr. Thorner is a David C. Harrison Teaching Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Virginia, is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, of the Royal College of Physicians (London), and Master of the American College of Physicians. His current research is on the epidemic of diabetes and obesity with patients who have these conditions and their responses to supervised lifestyle changes which have allowed them to stop insulin therapy. Dr. Thorner, Dr. Snow and others are assembling a model of how the normal homeostatic mechanisms are subverted by a modern lifestyle and the Western diet.

Steven G. Aldana, PhD

Dr. Aldana has published over 60 scientific articles on the prevention, arrest, and reversal of America's most common chronic diseases. He has written 7 books on the ability of healthy lifestyle habits to prevent cardiovascular disease, cancers, diabetes, and many chronic diseases. His most recent book, The Culprit and The Cure is currently being used by over 4,500 companies and corporations in an effort to boost productivity and reduce employee related health expenses. The Harvard School of Public Health says this book is "better than the best medicines". www.stevealdana.com

T. Colin Campbell, PhDdwd

For more than 40 years, Dr. Colin Campbell has been at the forefront of nutrition research. His legacy, the China Study, is the most comprehensive study of health and nutrition ever conducted. The study was a partnership project between the Chinese and American governments that produced statistically significant associations between various dietary factors and disease. Dr. Campbell is a Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University. He received his master's degree and PhD from Cornell, served as a Research Associate at MIT, and taught at Virginia Tech for 10 years before returning to Cornell Chair. www.tcolincampbell.org.

Antonia Demas, Ph.D.

Dr. Demas has a Ph.D. in education, nutrition, and anthropology from Cornell University. She is the founder and director of the Food Studies Institute, based in Trumansburg, New York, a non-profit devoted to improving the long-term health and education of children. Her curriculum, Food Is Elementary, has been used successfully in more than 2,000 schools in 33 states. She consults, trains, and certifies teachers as food educators in the U.S. and abroad. Dr. Demas is a Visiting Scholar at Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health and at the University of Illinois Medical School. www.foodstudies.org

Hans Diehl, DrHSc, MPH,CNS

Dr. Diehl is an epidemiologically trained lifestyle interventionist with a doctorate in Health Science and a Masters in Public Health Nutrition, both from Loma Linda University, where he is a Clinical Professor of Preventive Medicine. Dr. Diehl directs of the Lifestyle Medicine Institute in California and is founder of the CHIP Program (Coronary Health Improvement Project). With more than 50,000 alumni, CHIP advocates a healthier lifestyle to prevent and reverse diseases. His book "Health Power" has sold over 2 million copies. www.chiphealth.com

D. W. Edington

Dr. Edington is the director of the University of Michigan's Health Management Research Center. Dr. Edington's research focuses on the precursors of disease and vitality. His interest is in the relationships between healthy lifestyles, vitality and quality of life, as they benefit both individuals and organizations. He is specifically interested in how individual health promotion, worksite wellness activities and programs within organizations impact health care cost containment, productivity, and human resource development. www.hmrc.umich.edu

Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr, MD

Dr. Esselstyn has been associated with the Cleveland Clinic since 1968. During that time he served as President of the Staff and as a member of the Board of Governors. In 2005, he became the first recipient of the Benjamin Spock Award for Compassion in Medicine. In 1995, he published his benchmark long-term nutritional study: arresting and reversing coronary artery disease in severely ill patients. Twelve years later he updated and published the study in his book Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease. www.heartattackproof.com.

Rip Esselstyn

Rip was born in upper New York state and moved to Austin Texas to become an All-American swimmer. After spending 10 years as a professional triathlete Rip joined the Austin Fire Department in 1997. His New York Times bestseller "Engine2 Diet" contains a groundbreaking nutritional program with indisputable, dramatic results in lowering cholesterol and losing weight in just 4 weeks. For more information log on to: www.engine2diet.com.

Frank Schwartz, MD

Professor of Endocrinology, Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine (OU-COM), Dept. of Specialty Medicine; J. O. Watson, D.O., Chair for Diabetes Research and the Director; ARHI Diabetes Endocrine Center at OU-COM. His clinical practice addresses all diseases related to the endocrine system; pituitary, thyroid, parathyroid, adrenal, ovary, testis and metabolic diseases such as diabetes or metabolic bone disease. The center was designed to meet the complex health care challenges of the diabetes epidemic in the country and specifically in Appalachia. Under his direction the ARHI Diabetes/Endocrine Center has established outreach programs in several underserved cities in the region.

Tania Basta, PhD, MPH, CHES

Panel Discussion Moderator: "Putting it all together: Action Steps for a Healthier Appalachia"

This Week's Reading List: Is Sitting a Lethal Activity? What's the Single Best Exercise? How Much Sleep Do You Need?

How Much Do You Move?

Getting the Most Bang for Your Exercise Buck

How Much Sleep Do You Need?

AMERICAN SLUMBER Number of hours of sleep (self-reported) on weeknights.

I wish I had time to write about these great reads--but responsibilities await. Learn & enjoy!

How Little Sleep Can You Get Away With? by Maggie Jones. I had to get up at 4:30 am on Friday morning to go to an out-of-town meeting--and it turned me into a crabby impatient brain-dead librarian. That's what operating on 4 hours of poor quality sleep does to me. I need 7-8 hours of the restful stuff to feel my best.

If you missed my Wednesday post, be sure to read, the Sunday's New York Times Magazine article: Is Sugar Toxic? Gary Taubes. It's eye-opening & controversial.

April 13, 2011

"Is that piece of chocolate an innocent indulgence? Or your next hit? We're finding that a sweet tooth makes you just as much an addict as snorting cocaine.

SETTLED on the sofa watching the usual rubbish on TV, I notice that predictable, uncontrollable, nightly craving. At first I sit there, fighting it. But the longer I fight, the worse it gets. After 20 minutes, I can't concentrate on anything, I feel anxious, and start fidgeting like crazy. Finally, admitting my addiction, I break. I go to the freezer - to my stash of white stuff - and take a hit. Almost instantly, I relax, my brain in a state of bliss as the chemical courses through my veins. Isn't it amazing what a few scoops of ice cream can do?

Before you dismiss my agitation as mere weakness, consider this: to my brain, sugar is akin to cocaine. There is now compelling evidence that foods high in sugar, fat and salt - as most junk foods are - can alter your brain chemistry in the same way as highly addictive drugs such as cocaine and heroin.

Junk foods switch on biological mechanisms that are just as hard to fight as recreational drugs."

If you received this via email, click here to get the web version with the links & photos.

On Monday my husband made a double-batch of Rip Esselstyn's Engine 2 Dark Chocolate Brownies. He needed to bring something to his Master Gardener meeting--and he figured that as long as he was pulling out all that baking stuff--he'd make a batch for us, too.

Big mistake! Take my advice. Do not make these brownies. Do not have sugary treats in the house. Just because they don't use butter or oil or eggs--and just because they use cocoa and whole wheat flour--doesn't mean they're good for you. And it doesn't mean you'll eat less of them.

I rarely eat sugar or cookies or baked goods. Really. But if they're in MY HOUSE--who can resist that temptation? I ate three brownies--one right after the other--and honestly, I physically felt "not so good".

Your "Must Read" This Week: Gary Taubes Looks at the Research in the New York Times Magazine - Is Sugar Toxic?

If you're a regular blog reader, you know all about the subject of Taubes' article--It starts with Dr. Robert Lustig and his viral YouTube video--"Sugar: The Bitter Truth". If you missed that post, you can read it here--and skip Lustig's 90 minute video--which was a taping of his University of San Francisco Mini-Medical School Lecture.

My Advice--Read the Article - But Here's a Taste--Teaser

Taubes gets right down to the bottom line, "This brings us to the salient question: Can sugar possibly be as bad as Lustig says it is?"

"If I didn’t buy this argument myself, I wouldn’t be writing about it here," says Taubes.

[For]Varman Samuel, who studies insulin resistance at Yale School of Medicine, the correlation between liver fat and insulin resistance in patients, lean or obese, is “remarkably strong.” What it looks like, Samuel says, is that “when you deposit fat in the liver, that’s when you become insulin-resistant.”

The Cancer Connection: One of the diseases that increases in incidence with obesity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome is cancer.

This is why I said earlier that insulin resistance may be a fundamental underlying defect in many cancers, as it is in type 2 diabetes and heart disease. The connection between obesity, diabetes and cancer was first reported in 2004 in large population studies by researchers from the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer.

It is not controversial. What it means is that you are more likely to get cancer if you’re obese or diabetic than if you’re not, and you’re more likely to get cancer if you have metabolic syndrome than if you don’t.

Cancer Is Rare in Non-Western Diets. The second observation was that malignant cancer, like diabetes, was a relatively rare disease in populations that didn’t eat Western diets, and in some of these populations it appeared to be virtually nonexistent.

Now most researchers will agree that the link between Western diet or lifestyle and cancer manifests itself through this association with obesity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome — i.e., insulin resistance. This was the conclusion, for instance, of a 2007 report published by the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research — “Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity and the Prevention of Cancer.”

How Does Insulin Resistance Promote Cancer? So how does it work? Cancer researchers now consider that the problem with insulin resistance is that it leads us to secrete more insulin, and insulin (as well as a related hormone known as insulin-like growth factor) actually promotes tumor growth.

As it was explained to me by Craig Thompson, who has done much of this research and is now president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, the cells of many human cancers come to depend on insulin to provide the fuel (blood sugar) and materials they need to grow and multiply. Insulin and insulin-like growth factor (and related growth factors) also provide the signal, in effect, to do it.

The more insulin, the better they do. Some cancers develop mutations that serve the purpose of increasing the influence of insulin on the cell; others take advantage of the elevated insulin levels that are common to metabolic syndrome, obesity and type 2 diabetes. Some do both.

Thompson believes that many pre-cancerous cells would never acquire the mutations that turn them into malignant tumors if they weren’t being driven by insulin to take up more and more blood sugar and metabolize it.

Is the problem caused by sugar or obesity or both? But some researchers will make the case, as Cantley and Thompson do, that if something other than just being fatter is causing insulin resistance to begin with, that’s quite likely the dietary cause of many cancers.

If it’s sugar that causes insulin resistance, they say, then the conclusion is hard to avoid that sugar causes cancer — some cancers, at least — radical as this may seem and despite the fact that this suggestion has rarely if ever been voiced before publicly. For just this reason, neither of these men (Cantley & Thompson) will eat sugar or high-fructose corn syrup, if they can avoid it.

“I have eliminated refined sugar from my diet and eat as little as I possibly can,” Thompson told me, “because I believe ultimately it’s something I can do to decrease my risk of cancer.” Cantley put it this way: “Sugar scares me.”

If you ask me it's not just about sugar. And it's not just about fat. It's about both! And we have more to be concerned about than just cancer! What about heart disease, stroke, arthritis, joint problems, dementia, the disability that comes with obesity, and more?

The worst part---they fill us up, and we have far less interest in the real stuff with all the nutrition---vegetables, fruits & whole grains.

I "mostly" ditched sugar 2 years ago. Nine months ago I ditched the fat. We can argue all we like---but my weight is down to college weight---and I'm 61--and I eat EVERYTHING "healthy & real" that I want to eat! And as much as I want to eat.

Couldn't feel better--and BP & lipids are now perfect. No more belly fat. It's not just about the sugar. It's about the fat, too. Never lost a pound by just ditching sugar!"

If you received this post via email, click here to get to the web version with the not-to-be-missed video & all the links.

Two years ago I decided to "mostly" ditch the sugar from my life. After "winning" a raffle of three giant boxes of truffles at a work Christmas party, and then downing more of them than I'm embarrassed to admit, I decided to just swear off sugar. But, mostly it was about ditching all the saturated fat that's always wrapped up in the kind sugar I craved--like chocolate chip cookies, "heart healthy" 85% cacao bars, and chocolate desserts.

Beyond all the empty calories & fat wrapped up in my kind of sugary faves--two years ago I had no idea how bad sugar really was--but I do now.

Right now I'm on a "Bitter Truth of Sugar" High. And I'm hoping to convince you all to find the 90 minutes it will take to watch Dr. Robert H. Lustig's eye-opening University of California at San Francisco's "Mini-Medical School" lecture, "Sugar: The Bitter Truth". Sure, it's a huge amount of time to stare at a computer screen, but it just may change your life--or at least what you put into your mouth. And I guarantee it will change what you feed your children or grandchildren. Take a measly 15 minutes each day to watch it, bit by bit. You won't regret it.

Honestly, I don't even know where to start when it comes to sharing Dr. Robert H. Lustig's story about how bad sugar is for us. I first listened to him on my recent flight to Florida via a podcast of his interview with Joe & Terry Graedon on the People's Pharmacy. I quickly followed that up on Sunday by watching his UC-SF mini-med school lecture, thanks to a recommendation from a physician blog reader in Michigan. Thank you, Dr. H!

It's not a simple story to tell. It's like trying to condense a 1000 page "who-done-it", that's a story of political intrigue, corporate greed, addiction, dietary indiscretion, consumer ignorance, complicated physiological biochemistry, and medical research all rolled into one. The story includes Richard Nixon, the 1973 Agricultural Secy'. Earl Butz, the sugar & farm lobby, presidential elections, the food industry, brain chemistry, liver metabolism, our taste buds and more--all conspiring to make us fat and sick. Oh my! Two years ago I wrote about a part of this story in: King Corn - and the Real Story Behind the Demise of the Family Farm, the Rise in Obesity, Type II Diabetes & Fast Food.

Bottom Line: Sugar has proved to be a major villain in our escalating rates of obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, dental caries, inflammation, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, insulin resistance, and metabolic syndrome--to name a few. And it's not just because sugar is empty calories--it goes way beyond that! It's a downright toxic substance--with adverse affects pretty similar to those of alcohol! No matter what kind of sugar you can think of, it's all fructose--and fructose is a poison. And I thought fructose was harmless substance! Here's the deal: once fructose is extracted from a plant's fiber--it becomes bad news.

Lustig's Mantra: When G-d made the poison, it was packaged with the antidote--like fruit--which is fiber and juice.

Wherever there's fructose in nature, there's way more fiber. The only exception is honey, and that's guarded by bees! G-d made it hard to get "fructose sugar" without eating the fiber.

The problem is: Man figured out a way to extract it! Not only has man made it easy to get--but the food industry has made it impossible to avoid!

Pre-1975, before the invention of high-fructose corn syrup, Americans ate 63 pounds of sugar a year--today we're up to 156 pounds. That's 22 teaspoons a day. The American Heart Association's 2009 Scientific Statement recommends the maximum to be 6 teaspoons for women--9 teaspooons for men.

Who Is Dr. Robert H. Lustig and Why Should We Believe What He Says?

Lustig has the credentials, the clinical and research experience to be an expert on how sugar damages our bodies. He's a professor of clinical pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco, where he directs the Weight Assessment for Teen and Child Health (WATCH) Program. His specialty is neuroendocrinology, with a specific emphasis on the regulation of energy balance by the central nervous system. He's working with overweight and obese kids who either have type-2 diabetes--or are on their way to getting it. As a neuroendocrinologist he's an expert in the appetite and satiety hormones of ghrelin and leptin.

Fruit juice of any kind--even the 100% real stuff. Yes, that includes o.j. All fruit juices.

They're all the same. They are sucrose--which is 1/2 fructose, and 1/2 glucose.

Glucose is good. It's the energy of life. All carbohydrates are glucose--the starches, the pastas, the beans & legumes. It gives us energy--it can be used by every cell and every organ in our body.

Fructose, on the other hand, is bad news once it's separated from the fiber of whole fruit or plants. It's completely different from glucose.

Listen closely: fructose is metabolized ONLY in the liver and it's metabolized just like fat. No other organ in the body can metabolize it--and instead of generating energy--it ends up generating FAT. That's right, the liver turns fructose straight into fat cells--and when your liver generates fat, it becomes insulin-resistant (hepatic insulin-resistance). So, if you're eating a high-sugar diet--you might as well say you're on a high-fat diet.

What's so bad about insulin-resistance? When the liver becomes insulin-resistant--it drives up your insulin levels, so instead of burning the energy from the food you are eating, you store even more of it as fat in your cells, driving you to eat even more. Here's why. As Lustig explains it, sugar/soda pop/juice/dessert-eating Americans are releasing about twice the insulin than they were 25 years ago--and all that extra insulin is driving the food we eat to get stored as more fat, which makes us even more insulin-resistant.

"The higher the insulin goes, the more food you want to eat & the less well your brain is able to get the signal from your gut that you're full. Leptin, the satiety hormone, is effectively disabled in the presence of insulin-resistance, and you can blame that on all the sugar/fructose that the liver turned into fat.

The calories-in calories-out theory doesn't work in insulin-resistance or when you're eating too much "sugar/aka fructose"--because once the liver turns the fructose into fat cells you just aren't going to be able to burn all your calories, because they're trapped in your fat cells--unless you want to starve yourself. And no one's about to do that.

When leptin isn't being released the way it's supposed to--as happens in insulin-resistance--your brain doesn't know you've already had enough to eat. It thinks you're starving--so you just eat more. You end up in a vicious cycle of consumption and then disease." (Lustig, People's Pharmacy interview)

The Fructose-Cholesterol Connection: When it comes to LDL, the low-density lipoproteins, there are two types: a "neutral" one & a bad one. The harmless one is large, fluffy, buoyant, and kind of bounces around. It's just too big to get into the endothelial lining of your blood vessels and start the whole atherosclerosis & inflammation process. But, the small-dense ones are the ones to worry about, because they can burrow right under the endothelium--and according to Lustig: Fructose is the biggest generator of small-dense LDL's! Just ditch the sugar if you care about your arteries & blood vessels!

Note: In typical cholesterol tests the LDLs are measured with one number, with no differentiation between the fluffy (neutral) & the small dense (bad) kind. To get a reading on what kind of lipid particles you have, you need an NMR-lipoProfile test. And don't forget about the triglycerides--they're also driven up by sugar.

Last year research out of Emory University confirmed a statistically significant connection between sweetener consumption & lipid levels, Welsh, JA et al. JAMA, April 21, 2010 33:1490-96, "Caloric Sweetner Consumption and Dyslipidemia Among US Adults"Click here for the article.

Think the Less Processed Sugars, like Agave, Maple Syrup, Brown Rice Syrup, or Fruit Juice Are a Better Choice? Think again. Part of the Esselstyn diet includes specific instructions to avoid sugar & fruit juice--because of their connection to cholesterol--insulin-resistance-- and type-2 diabetes. Esselstyn even advises his patients to limit whole fruit to 2 pieces a day--or 3 if that includes berries or grapes. Too bad, so many plant-based no-oil advocates (myself included) don't think twice about using what we think are better sugar choices--like agave or maple syrup. Sorry to say, they're just as bad as high-fructose corn syrup, as far as the liver is concerned!

The Fructose-Disease Connection--Just a Few for Starters

Ever hear of Advanced Glycation End Products (AGE's)? I hadn't. You know how sugar or maple syrup are terrific browning agents for food? Well, that's an example of AGE's-and the sugar we eat does something similar once it's inside of our bodies. Fructose is 7 times more likely to form AGE's--the nasty byproducts that are implicated in aging, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's, stroke, inflammation, wrinkles (damaged collagen), and the cross-linking of proteins that can cause cancer. Think of AGE's as browning agents for your arteries' walls.

Exercise Guidelines for Type 2 Diabetes. The latest guidelines for exercise in type-2 diabetes call for weight/strength training for 2, or ideally 3 times a week! "Exericse and type 2 diabetes: American College of Sports Medicine and the American Diabetes Association: joint position statement" Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2010;42:2282-2303.

Stress Reduction. Exercise reduces stress and the release of the stress hormone cortisol--appetite goes down when stress goes down.

Reduces sugar absorption. It reduces the rate of sugar/carbohydrate absorption from the gut into the blood stream--which limits the amount of fructose you'll absorb, as well as keeping the insulin levels down. If you keep that insulin level down, then you shunt less sugar into fat. Less fructose=less fat in the cells. That's why refined white flour + sugar is the worst combination.

Makes you feel full faster. Fiber makes the food move through the intestine faster. At the end of the small intestine is a bunch of cells called Peptide YY (PYY), which regulate appetite. When PYY is released into our bloodstream it goes straight to the brain & that's the satiety signal! Once you get that "all full" signal, you're not going to eat again until the next meal. The problem is--with 22 feet of intestine that the food has to pass through before you can get that signal--that takes time--about 20 minutes. Fiber will speed upthe time it takes for the food to move from the stomach to the end of the small intestine. Lustig tells his patients that they have to wait 20 minutes for seconds.

Helps Fat Suppress Insulin Secretion. Fiber not only interferes with carbohydrate absorption, by slowing its absorption from the gut into the bloodstream, but it does the same thing for fats. Instead of absorbing all the fats in the small intestine--some of the fats will make it to the large intestine & the colon, where there's a special set of colonic bacteria (called bacteroides) that will digest those fatty acids into short-chain fatty acids--and when they get absorbed they'll SUPPRESS insulin secretion--as opposed to the long-chain fatty acids that STIMULATE insulin secretion.

Fiber Works Three Ways. By reducing sugar absorption, making you feel full faster, and suppressing insulin--that's how fiber helps prevent type-2 diabetes and obesity.

How much fiber do we need? The USDA says we should eat 25 grams of fiber a day. Lustig says we need 50 grams of fiber a day. Our ancestors consumed 100 grams of fiber a day. The average American gets only 12 grams of fiber a day. Any wonder that we're overweight, constipated, and insulin resistant?

Similac infant formula has 10.3% of its calories as sucrose & 43.2% as corn syrup solids--a "baby milk shake", no different than drinking a Coke, which has 10.5% sucrose!

Lustig's Advice for Adults

1. Eat only real food, that comes from the ground.

2. No processed food, because that usually has sugar added to it--and the fiber removed--the 2 things that are driving the obesity & chronic metabolic disease epidemic.

3. Shop the perimeter of the supermarket--not the aisles. If it's in a box--it's often processed for shelf life--sugar-added, fiber-removed.

4. Eat only whole-grain bread--that's not the same as whole wheat bread--the fiber is in the whole grain--and the starch stays in the husk in the kernel, which slows the sugar & glucose absorption, so your insulin stys low.

5. A calorie is not a calorie--and fructose is NOT glucose.

6. Fructose is a chronic hepatoxin--It's alcohol without the "buzz".

Lustigism: If you reduce the rate of carbohydrate absorption in your gut by eating a high fiber diet--the bacteria will get to it. Which means, in life you have just two choices: It's fart or be fat. The decision is yours!

Any changes all this means for me? Not much. I eat plenty of fiber and exercise already. Sugary desserts are rare treats for me. But, I always eat wedding cake! Haven't had sugared soda pop in years. I'll still use a little maple syrup, agave, or even brown sugar for occasional recipes. I sweeten my coffee with unadulterated stevia. I'll think twice about ordering a pina colada, a margarita, or a mojito! But I'm sure I'll still have one a few times a year. I am going to eliminate pure juice from my Green Smoothies. And I definitely will try hard to resist feeding my grandson cookies & ice cream.

August 26, 2010

Back in early May I posted about my preview of the Julia Grayer-Gage Johnston documentary, "Chow Down". So many people emailed me back then to find out how to order a copy and see it for themselves--but at the time it hadn't been released.

Yeah! It's finally out. Julia Grayer, the writer-producer-director emailed me with the good news & the ordering info. You can purchase your own copy or stream it via Amazon, by clicking here. It's that rare combination of a movie that will have you laughing, learning, & rethinking what's going into your mouth all at the same time. A 3-fer. Kind of like the thinking-person's healthy hoot. Enjoy! And if you missed the May 3rd post--here's your refresher.

One man’s struggle to reverse his severe heart disease .... with diet.

Charles,
45, devoted husband and father of two, is shocked to learn not only
that he has cardiovascular disease but that the blockages in his heart
are so severe that his surgeon refuses to operate. But Charles is a
fighter and he’ll do whatever it takes to be around to see his kids
grow up.

Just like Charles, millions of Americans are
sick and they’re tired of the pills and operations. What if you could
avoid it all, but nobody’s willing to tell you how?

Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn of the Cleveland Clinic is trampling the status
quo to get the word out. He’s the director of one of the
longest-running studies in the peer-reviewed scientific literature
showing that a plant-based diet can reverse even late stage heart
disease. If heart disease, the number one killer in America, can be
stopped and often reversed with diet, why aren't people like Charles
routinely given this information before being sent to the operating
room?

-Synopsis of "Chow Down: Eat Like Your Life Depends On It?-

If you received this via email click here to go to the web version with all the links & video trailers.

Back in April Ann Esselstyn lent me a copy of Chow Down: Eat Like Your Life Depends On It--a Julia Grayer/Gage Johnston documentary that was 4 years in the making! Click here for the film's website.

I finally had a chance to watch it with my husband last night, and...

Our verdict? We
both loved it! Nothing dull or dry about this documentary. It's
lighthearted, clever, controversial, with cool animation to help
explain the technical stuff--and it tells the truth. So go out &
find yourself a copy!

Bottom Line:
Over 130 million Americans have a chronic illness--and 70% of deaths
are caused by those chronic illnesses. Type 2 Diabetes and heart
disease can be prevented or reversed--and 60% of all cancers can be
prevented--just by putting to use the knowledge we already have. The
answer isn't in pills and procedures--it's in eating a well-planned
plant-based diet. But it takes time, preparation, a shift in your food
taste preferences, and above all--motivation and support from family,
friends, and a healthcare professional. And that's certainly been true
for me.

How Did We Get Into This Mess? Why Isn't This Information Front Page News?

Just follow the money.
The food and drug industries are not looking out for our health. And
our government & medical "industries" have their own vested
interests in the status quo. There's profit in cheap sweet fatty salty
unhealthy food. There's profit in pharmaceuticals and medical
procedures. And who knew the U.S. Department of Agriculture was more
of a lobbying agency for farmers than a guardian of our health.
They're the folks who advise us about what to eat with their Food Pyramid--and provide food for school lunches. It's like the fox guarding the hen house.

According to
Dr. Neal Barnard, the generic ads we see for beef and milk are funded
from government programs. The federal government at one time even
worked with Wendy's to help create the Cheddar Lover's Beef Burger to sell more cheese--and the same with Subway.

Can You Really Change Your Health By Changing Your Diet? Yes, You Can.

Charles Venezia:
a young father, who was a meat-lover, a vegetable-hater, a hypertensive
since age 16, with multiple coronary blockages so severe his surgeon
refused to operate. His choices: disability, death, or a diet change.
He chose a diet change--with support from Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn.

Before:

Blood Pressure: 250/155

Weight: 360 lbs.

Cholesterol: 220

After:

Blood Pressure: 120/80

Weight: not mentioned but he looks fantastic--and healthy!

Cholesterol: 140

He's had no coronary events and he leads a full active life.

Charles
is 100% committed to eating plant-based, and he's fortunate to have a
highly motivated wife who is willing to spend the time it takes to shop
and prepare plant-based fare. But it wasn't easy for Charles, the son
of a butcher. For him this change was a complete paradigm shift--he
still misses his meat and he misses restaurant eating, "It's not fun. It doesn't taste all that great. But I'm not going to have a heart attack." He
also follows up regularly with Dr. Esselstyn. Even Charles' young
children are following the program--eating 75-80% healthy plant-based
fare.

My comment to
Charles: Come on over to my house & eat. Our meals are 100%
tastier & more interesting than anything I used to make that
involved beef or chicken!

Charles
and John Oehrle are just two of hundreds of patients seen by Dr.
Esselstyn who have stopped or reversed their heart disease, arrested
their diabetes, returned to normal weight, lowered their blood
pressure, and regained their health by switching to a plant-based (no
meat or dairy) diet of:

Whole grains

Beans & legumes

Vegetables

Fruits

No added oils

Cardiac Procedures & Statins Don't Cure Disease

Esselstyn is fond of saying:

"The Elelphant in the room is that procedures really don't prolong life. Stents, bypasses, dialysis--none of it works."

The 17 patients of Esselstyn's who have stayed on a plant-based diet have had zero cardiac events.

Before they started with him--while they were under the care of expert cardiologists--they had a total of 49 cardiac events.

John Oehrle's Philadelphia surgeon told him: Procedures
are just a temporary patch job. These procedures do nothing to cure
the diseases. When we do these operations we put a band-aid on these
people. It doesn't treat the disease. They have to do that for
themselves.

Taking statins and not
changing your diet does not "cure cardiovascular disease"--and almost
1/2 of men who have a heart attack before age 65 are dead within 8
years.

Think this doesn't apply to you because you don't have diagnosed heart disease? Big
coronary blockages only cause 12% of the heart attacks. Most of the
time it's the little arterial plaques that cause 88% of blockages--3
small blockages are a ticking time bomb--and you won't even know it! Your coronary artery has to be 70% occluded to have symptoms, like
angina. If your arteries are even 10-69% blocked, and you're inflaming
them with what you eat, you're at risk. It's all about inflammation - Calm down the inflammation & you'll
keep those atherosclerotic plaques safely stuck to your artery walls.

Bottom Line: Operations don't cure everything. You have to do that yourself with serious diet & lifestyle changes.

Dr. Hans Diehl on the Benefits of Diet: "As we treat heart
disease with diet we also help to prevent strokes, fragility, dementia,
blood pressure, and the common cancers like breast and prostate. It's
probably one common disease that expresses itself in different ways."

What Keeps Us From Making Drastic Diet & Lifestyle Changes?

No Serious Support from the Health Care Community. Many
doctors assume people aren't willing to make the necessary drastic diet
changes--so they don't offer the option. Charles Venezia was told only
to lower his salt intake. John Oehrle was told to go on a
Mediterranean diet--that was no help--and he didn't do it. It takes a
lot of support to make these changes.

Lack of support from Family & Friends. Garnet Hall--who
participated in the documentary, hoping to stop her type 2 diabetes
wasn't able to stick to the diet. Her friends & family were
enthusiastic at first--but that quickly stopped. She had to do it all
by herself--as well as cook meat, cheese, & barbeque for her
husband, kids, and when entertaining friends. She just couldn't do it
all--and was faced with temptation at every turn.

Some People Care More About Food Than Their Health. "I don't want of live longer if I can't eat what I want to eat!"

Many mistakenly think it's all genetic and out-of-their control. Wrong. From Dr. David Katz of Yale--nutrition controls the expression of genes. From Dr. Hans Diehl--Genetics loads the gun, but lifestyle pulls the trigger.

Click here for a great animated video explaining how a heart attack happens--or if you don't see the Chow Down trailer on your screen.

What has happened to us? Despite the most advanced medical technology in the world, we are sicker than ever by nearly every measure.

Two out of every three of us are overweight. Cases of diabetes are exploding, especially amongst our younger population.

About half of us are taking at least one prescription drug. Major medical operations have become routine, helping to drive health care costs to astronomical levels.

Heart disease, cancer and stroke are the country’s three leading causes of death, even though billions are spent each year to “battle” these very conditions. Millions suffer from a host of other degenerative diseases.

Could it be there’s a single solution to all of these problems? A solution so comprehensive but so utterly straightforward, that it’s mind-boggling that more of us haven’t taken it seriously?

-Forks Over Knives, a documentary that explores the evidence of "food as medicine", coming March 11, 2011-

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For my 1/29/11 updated post about the film when I saw it at a "Big Screen" sneak preview--click here

I can say this wholeheartedly. When this movie comes out this summer, make sure you see it.

Their evidence speaks for itself. A whole-foods plant-based diet can prevent, and often undo all the damage that our "too-rich diets of affluence" have caused: obesity, heart disease, type-2 diabetes, many cancers, hypertension, strokes, and osteoporosis.

Campbell & Esselstyn were both born in the early 1930's. They both grew up on farms. Eating beef and drinking milk was what they knew. But by the 1980's both men, one a Cornell University research scientist and the chair of the division of Nutritional Sciences, and the other, a Cleveland Clinic surgeon, had turned their backs on their past, and were advocating a whole-food plant-based diet.

For Campbell--getting enough animal protein--enough milk and meat was important to good health. Back then he believed milk was nature's most perfect food. In fact, his original research was on the optimal feed for animals. But, he's a scientist--so in spite of his background and his original biases, when all the evidence started pointing in the direction of animal protein as the cause of many of our chronic diseases, he set out to investigate--first to the Philippines to find out why so many children there were mysteriously being diagnosed with liver cancer, then by conducting numerous laboratory studies on the effects of animal protein on cancer, and finally traveling to China, to conduct the largest "living human laboratory" epidemiologic study ever designed.

Campbell's conclusion: There is not one single mechanism in a plant-based diet that is responsible for its health promoting effects. It's not about individual nutrients. It's the 100,000 chemicals from plant foods that work together synergistically that bring about good health. Good nutrition supported by exercise, water, and sunshine is greater than the sum of its parts. It's a biological symphony.

"People who ate the most animal-based foods got the most chronic disease...People who ate the most plant-based foods were the healthiest and tended to avoid chronic disease. These results could not be ignored."

"I know of nothing else in medicine that can come close to what a plant-based diet can do."

"I can say this with a great deal of confidence. Our national authorities are simply excluding this concept of nutrition from the debate in order to protect the status quo. If everyone would do this, we'd cut health care costs by 70-85%."

-T. Colin Campbell, from Forks Over Knives-

"The major message from the China Study--is the only message--a plant-food-based diet, mainly cereal grains, vegetables & fruit, and very little animal food, is always associated with lower mortality of certain cancers, stroke, and coronary heart disease."

--Dr.Junshi Chen, Senior Research Professor, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China, and co-investigator of the "China Study" with Dr. T. Colin Campbell-

For Esselstyn--trained as a surgeon, and trained to treat disease by cutting it out--he chose to specialize in breast cancer surgery. But in the 1980's he was "increasingly disillusioned by what he was not doing-- never curing the underlying disease, never doing anything to help prevent it in the next unsuspecting victim".

That led him to delve into the research of populations with low incidences of breast & prostate cancer--and then on to populations with low incidences of heart disease--and then noticing the dramatic rise and fall of heart disease in war-time Norway when the Germans commandeered all of Norway's beef & dairy cattle for their own troops. He connected the dots--to the inescapable conclusion that animal protein was disease-causing, while plant protein was not. The result turned into the initiation of the longest-running study (over 20 years) of heart disease reversal based on a diet devoid of animal protein--just beans, legumes, whole grains, vegetables, and fruit--hold the oil, please.

"Some people think the "diet" is extreme. Half a million people a year will have their chests opened up and a vein taken from their leg and sewn onto their coronary artery. Some people would call that extreme."

"The elephant in the room when we talk about stents and bypass surgery--those procedures don't protect from new heart attacks. Stents & bypasses are used to treat large arterial blockages. Yet according to many research studies only a small percentage of heart attacks are caused by the largest build-up of plaque. The rest are caused by the more numerous newer blockages that are far more inflamed and much more likely to rupture than the larger older, more stable plaques. So this is why those procedures don't treat the disease. They are treating the symptoms."

--Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn--

Why do I personally find the work and message of Campbell and Esselstyn so compelling?

They have the scientific evidence. Campbell came to his conclusions from the scientific research route. Esselstyn came to his conclusions from the clinical research route.

They are both in their mid-seventies, and they are no longer beholden to any academic, medical, or governmental institutions--nor are they concerned about damaging their reputations--they are free to speak the truth. They aren't motivated by financial gain, or fame. They are unassuming, approachable, and motivated only by wanting to share what they have learned. They don't have to do this!

Bottom line: These two (and their families) are poster children for a plant-based diet. At 77 & 76 Campbell & Esselstyn are both slim, healthy, with stick straight posture, brimming with vitality, articulate, with busy writing, speaking, teaching, & research schedules. Campbell still runs--not walks--he runs. Esselstyn, at 76, swims a mile a day, lifts weights, and bikes 3 days a week. Ann Esselstyn, also in her 70's, practices yoga, weight trains, and runs. I don't know about you--but to me, that says it all.

If you don't have the time to read Dr. T. Colin Campbell's The China Study and Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn's Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, do yourself a huge favor & go see this film. For me, Forks Over Knives did what these books could not.

You'll get a chance to hear Dr. Esselstyn's heart-disease-study patients tell their stories--how their lives were given back to them in a way that surgery and drugs could not.

You'll travel to China with Dr. T. Colin Campbell and his Chinese colleague Dr. Junshi Chen and you'll be able to really understand the depth, breadth, detail, and eye-opening evidence of their work in China--Diet, Life-Style, and Mortality in China: A Study of the Characteristics of 65 Chinese Counties. Cancer & heart disease are diseases of lifestyle, not genetics.

You'll clearly understand how the China Study, together with Campbell's work in the lab, and in the Philippines brought this former farm-boy to the inescapable conclusion: animal protein above 5% of calories can turn on cancer cells. Plant-protein will not.

You'll understand how U.S. government policies affect the foods we eat, the Food Pyramid recommendations, the subsidies our farmers receive, the food that is fed to our school children and to the military. And you'll get an insider's look into how these policies are shaped by business and farm financial interests--not our health interests.

You'll meet 2 people with serious health issues, who aren't exactly the "picture of health" in spite of conventional pharmaceutical-based medical care. And you'll see how they turn their lives around on a whole-foods plant-based diet.

Even Lee Fulkerson, the writer & director of the film, finds out that he isn't immune to the damage caused by his fast-food over-caffeinated diet. Overweight, hypertensive, tired, with elevated cholesterol, and a dangerously high CRP score (a marker for inflammation), these conditions vanish after just 13 weeks on a plant-based diet.

You'll meet Dr. Ruth Heidrich, a triathlete who is now in her mid-70's. At 47 years old she was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer that had metastasized to her bones and one lung. She thought she had a healthy diet: lots of vegetables, fruit, whole grains, chicken, fish, and low-fat dairy. Instead of conventional therapy she chose to participate in a research study based on a no-added-oil vegan diet. Her only changes were cutting out dairy, chicken, and fish. Constipation, dandruff, depression, and arthritis became history--along with the breast cancer. She went on to compete in multiple Ironman Triathalons (winning a gold medal in her age group) and marathons, and in 1999 she was named one of the "10 Fittest Women in North America". Now in her mid-70's she's still vegan, still swimming, running, biking, and weight-training and looks fantastic. She has a family history of osteoporosis--but without any medications her bone density continues to increase. Read more here.

Yep, I know this sounds like snake-oil, but let the evidence speak for itself. Two years ago I made the switch over to plant-based and now it's just part of my routine. I can't see any reason to go back.

The Real-Time Health Turn-Around of Lee Fulkerson, Joey of Tampa, and SanDera of Cleveland

To be honest, I'm a skeptic at heart. I never fall for magical transformations with pills, supplements, or diets. I need to see the scientific evidence. And I need to understand the mechanism behind how something works.

On a typical morning he'll drink 2 Red Bulls, 18 ounces of Coke, and a breakfast of fast food. Not a morning person, he relies on caffeine before he can even think.

He's overweight, over-caffeinated, and often fatigued.

Blood pressure of 142/82, weight of 231 pounds, cholesterol of 241, and LDL of 157, resting pulse of 92, and a CRP (measure of inflammation) of 6--which puts him in the high risk category.

Soon after ditching the caffeine, and learning to eat whole plant-based food, Lee starts to eat more often, feel much better, lose weight, have more energy, and he actually starts getting up earlier.

After 13 weeks on the plant-based diet take a look at Lee's numbers:

After:

Weight: 211 pounds (was 231 pounds)

Blood Pressure: 112/70 (was 142/82)

Resting heart rate: 60 (was 92)

Total Cholesterol: 154 (was 241)

LDL: 80 (was 157)

CRP (marker of inflammation) 2.8 (was 6)

He's not on any medications, and his health risks are now significantly reduced--just by changing his diet.

Meet Joey, owner of a landscape company in Tampa, FL

He describes himself as, "Living to Eat"

In 2004 his cholesterol is dangerously high at 320

His blood sugar was a hazardous 480, making him a type-2 diabetic and a prime candidate for a heart attack or a stroke.

He was put on multiple medications--9 pills, 2 injections. His daily regimen was 2 pills for the diabetes, 1 for cholesterol, 1 for high blood pressure, and twice a day injections of Byetta for the diabetes. He's spending $150-200 a month on medications after insurance.

Four years after being on these medications he continues to be overweight, feels tired all the time, and hates being on all these pills. He complains of low energy, ringing in the ears, sinus problems, shortness of breath, wheezing, coughs, indigestion, reflux, loose stools, diarrhea, bloating, and has trouble losing weight. A total of 27 medical concerns.

He meets with Drs. Matthew Lederman and Alona Pulde who teach him how to shop and prepare plant-based meals. Their joint goals are: Get off all medications, sleep better at night, stop feeling tired all the time, stop feeling rundown, lose weight, and reverse the medical diseases that can be reversed.

After only 8 weeks of switching to plant-based eating, Joey is off all of his medications, feeling more energetic, and he has started to run. He's feeling good all the time! At the start of his diet, his weight was 220. 8 weeks later, it's down to the 180-185 range--which makes him lighter than he was 20 years earlier.

After 22 weeks on the plant-based diet take a look at Joey's numbers:

After:

Weight: he's lost an additional 28 pounds--his before and after pictures are nothing short of amazing

Medical complaints: 26 out of his 27 medical complaints are gone

CRP: down to normal

Blood sugar: they are down, and continue to come down daily

Cholesterol: in the normal range, and less than when he was on medication

Blood Pressure: it's now normal, and even on medication it was elevated

He's off all of his medications, his numbers continue to improve. He looks almost unrecognizable from a mere 22 weeks ago. He feels energetic, and in control of his health.

Meet SanDera, a mother of 5 in her 30's who works for a diabetes out-patient clinic.

In October 2008 she was stricken with a strange illness. She suddenly couldn't talk, had cold sweats, and fatigue. Diagnosis: hypertension and type-2 diabetes.

She was treated with expensive prescription drugs--but she continued to eat the foods she knew she shouldn't eat.

She was referred to Dr. Esselstyn who educated her about the relationship of diet to diabetes, and coached her towards a plant-based diet. After years of eating fatty foods (like KFC, fries, biscuits, & more) the switch to plant-based was not an easy journey for her.

The diet had an almost immediate effect on her health. Her blood sugar immediately dropped.

Two months into the diet, the effects were dramatic. Her blood pressure was great. Her blood sugars were in the 80s & 70s. When it dropped into the 60s she became alarmed, and visited her diabetes educator who told her, "That's wonderful. It's a normal blood sugar. It means your pancreas is working."

Ironically, SanDera works at an outpatient facility for diabetics, but the treatment that worked for her was outside the established medical system.

Her sluggishness disappeared. She felt in control, and felt she was now finally tasting & enjoying the fruits and vegetables she was eating. She was able to eat to fullness, bring down her blood sugar, and still lose weight. After 8 weeks she was down 30 pounds.

When she approached her primary care physician about stopping her meds, she asked SanDera, "What is that doctor trying to do? Take you off your medication?" SanDera said, "Yeah. I'm hoping that's the goal."

After 20 weeks on the plant-based diet SanDera had lost 45 pounds. She had reversed her diabetes. She was off her medication, she had lots of energy, and most importantly of all--she felt in control of her health.

For more information on this upcoming documentary go the Forks Over Kniveswebsite

Keep an eye out for Forks Over Knives opening this summer. It's sure to stir up some controversy.

"The greatest gift that you could possibly give to your family--you can make them aware of this incredible power to avoid life's most painful events. You just don't have to have those kinds of events."

May 03, 2010

One man’s struggle to reverse his severe heart disease .... with diet.

Charles,
45, devoted husband and father of two, is shocked to learn not only
that he has cardiovascular disease but that the blockages in his heart
are so severe that his surgeon refuses to operate. But Charles is a
fighter and he’ll do whatever it takes to be around to see his kids
grow up.

Just like Charles, millions of Americans are
sick and they’re tired of the pills and operations. What if you could
avoid it all, but nobody’s willing to tell you how?

Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn of the Cleveland Clinic is trampling the status
quo to get the word out. He’s the director of one of the
longest-running studies in the peer-reviewed scientific literature
showing that a plant-based diet can reverse even late stage heart
disease. If heart disease, the number one killer in America, can be
stopped and often reversed with diet, why aren't people like Charles
routinely given this information before being sent to the operating
room?

-Synopsis of "Chow Down: Eat Like Your Life Depends On It?-

If you received this via email click here to go to the web version with all the links.

Last Monday Ann Esselstyn lent me a copy of Chow Down: Eat Like Your Life Depends On It--a Julia Grayer/Gage Johnston documentary that was 4 years in the making! Click here for the film's website.

I finally had a chance to watch it with my husband last night, and...

Our verdict? We both loved it! Nothing dull or dry about this documentary. It's lighthearted, clever, controversial, with cool animation to help explain the technical stuff--and it tells the truth. So go out & find yourself a copy!

Bottom Line: Over 130 million Americans have a chronic illness--and 70% of deaths are caused by those chronic illnesses. Type 2 Diabetes and heart disease can be prevented or reversed--and 60% of all cancers can be prevented--just by putting to use the knowledge we already have. The answer isn't in pills and procedures--it's in eating a well-planned plant-based diet. But it takes time, preparation, a shift in your food taste preferences, and above all--motivation and support from family, friends, and a healthcare professional. And that's certainly been true for me.

How Did We Get Into This Mess? Why Isn't This Information Front Page News?

Just follow the money. The food and drug industries are not looking out for our health. And our government & medical "industries" have their own vested interests in the status quo. There's profit in cheap sweet fatty salty unhealthy food. There's profit in pharmaceuticals and medical procedures. And who knew the U.S. Department of Agriculture was more of a lobbying agency for farmers than a guardian of our health. They're the folks who advise us about what to eat with their Food Pyramid--and provide food for school lunches. It's like the fox guarding the hen house.

According to Dr. Neal Barnard, the generic ads we see for beef and milk are funded from government programs. The federal government at one time even worked with Wendy's to help create the Cheddar Lover's Beef Burger to sell more cheese--and the same with Subway.

Can You Really Change Your Health By Changing Your Diet? Yes, You Can.

Charles Venezia: a young father, who was a meat-lover, a vegetable-hater, a hypertensive since age 16, with multiple coronary blockages so severe his surgeon refused to operate. His choices: disability, death, or a diet change. He chose a diet change--with support from Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn.

Before:

Blood Pressure: 250/155

Weight: 360 lbs.

Cholesterol: 220

After:

Blood Pressure: 120/80

Weight: not mentioned but he looks fantastic--and healthy!

Cholesterol: 140

He's had no coronary events and he leads a full active life.

Charles is 100% committed to eating plant-based, and he's fortunate to have a highly motivated wife who is willing to spend the time it takes to shop and prepare plant-based fare. But it wasn't easy for Charles, the son of a butcher. For him this change was a complete paradigm shift--he still misses his meat and he misses restaurant eating, "It's not fun. It doesn't taste all that great. But I'm not going to have a heart attack." He also follows up regularly with Dr. Esselstyn. Even Charles' young children are following the program--eating 75-80% healthy plant-based fare.

My comment to Charles: Come on over to my house & eat. Our meals are 100% tastier & more interesting than anything I used to make that involved beef or chicken!

Charles and John Oehrle are just two of hundreds of patients seen by Dr. Esselstyn who have stopped or reversed their heart disease, arrested their diabetes, returned to normal weight, lowered their blood pressure, and regained their health by switching to a plant-based (no meat or dairy) diet of:

Whole grains

Beans & legumes

Vegetables

Fruits

No added oils

Cardiac Procedures & Statins Don't Cure Disease

Esselstyn is fond of saying:

"The Elelphant in the room is that procedures really don't prolong life. Stents, bypasses, dialysis--none of it works."

The 17 patients of Esselstyn's who have stayed on a plant-based diet have had zero cardiac events.

Before they started with him--while they were under the care of expert cardiologists--they had a total of 49 cardiac events.

John Oehrle's Philadelphia surgeon told him: Procedures are just a temporary patch job. These procedures do nothing to cure the diseases. When we do these operations we put a band-aid on these people. It doesn't treat the disease. They have to do that for themselves.

Taking statins and not changing your diet does not "cure cardiovascular disease"--and almost 1/2 of men who have a heart attack before age 65 are dead within 8 years.

Think this doesn't apply to you because you don't have diagnosed heart disease? Big coronary blockages only cause 12% of the heart attacks. Most of the time it's the little arterial plaques that cause 88% of blockages--3 small blockages are a ticking time bomb--and you won't even know it! Your coronary artery has to be 70% occluded to have symptoms, like
angina. If your arteries are even 10-69% blocked, and you're inflaming
them with what you eat, you're at risk. It's all about inflammation - Calm down the inflammation & you'll
keep those atherosclerotic plaques safely stuck to your artery walls.

Bottom Line: Operations don't cure everything. You have to do that yourself with serious diet & lifestyle changes.

Dr. Hans Diehl on the Benefits of Diet: "As we treat heart disease with diet we also help to prevent strokes, fragility, dementia, blood pressure, and the common cancers like breast and prostate. It's probably one common disease that expresses itself in different ways."

What Keeps Us From Making Drastic Diet & Lifestyle Changes?

No Serious Support from the Health Care Community. Many doctors assume people aren't willing to make the necessary drastic diet changes--so they don't offer the option. Charles Venezia was told only to lower his salt intake. John Oehrle was told to go on a Mediterranean diet--that was no help--and he didn't do it. It takes a lot of support to make these changes.

Lack of support from Family & Friends. Garnet Hall--who participated in the documentary, hoping to stop her type 2 diabetes wasn't able to stick to the diet. Her friends & family were enthusiastic at first--but that quickly stopped. She had to do it all by herself--as well as cook meat, cheese, & barbeque for her husband, kids, and when entertaining friends. She just couldn't do it all--and was faced with temptation at every turn.

Some People Care More About Food Than Their Health. "I don't want of live longer if I can't eat what I want to eat!"

Many mistakenly think it's all genetic and out-of-their control. Wrong. From Dr. David Katz of Yale--nutrition controls the expression of genes. From Dr. Hans Diehl--Genetics loads the gun, but lifestyle pulls the trigger.

Click here for a great animated video explaining how a heart attack happens--or if you don't see the Chow Down trailer on your screen.